Presently, pet owners generally interact with their pets only when they are in the same general location, such as a home. Many pet owners are required to leave their pets alone and unsupervised for numerous hours every day when the pet owner goes to work, runs errands, or leaves town on trips or vacations. Some pets become bored, lethargic, or sedentary when left alone. This can lead to numerous health problems including obesity and depression. Alternatively, some pets become ornery and mischievous when left alone. This can lead to property damage, barking which irritates neighbors, and in extreme cases injury or death of the pet may occur.
One attempted solution to a lack of interaction and stimulation for pets has been to hire pet sitters who may take care of pets while the pet owner is away. Pet sitters often charge an hourly fee and may do little more than feed the pet before leaving. In some cases, the pet owner may never know that the pet sitter did not interact with the pet for more than a few minutes. Even in the case of a pet sitter who plays with the pet, the pet owner does not receive the direct benefit of interacting with the pet personally.
Other attempted solutions have included leaving televisions or radios on for the pet while the pet owner is away, attempting to use automatically controlled toys, electroshock punishment for misbehaving, and passive surveillance systems which provide one-directional monitoring of the pet. Each of these passive and active systems has its own drawbacks ranging from being inefficient to inhumane.
Accordingly, a remote interaction device for interacting with pets would be desirable.